


in the middle

by fiax



Category: The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: M/M, Not Canon Compliant, Not Captain America: Civil War (Movie) Compliant, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Post-Captain America: The Winter Soldier
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-02-07
Updated: 2018-02-28
Packaged: 2019-03-15 01:46:39
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 1,900
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13602990
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/fiax/pseuds/fiax
Summary: a prompt fill for DreadPirateWombat, set after/during TWS, Stucky to Winteriron.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

  * For [DreadPirateWombat](https://archiveofourown.org/users/DreadPirateWombat/gifts), [Gothic_Lolita](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Gothic_Lolita/gifts).



> for the super amazing prompt i found, i hope this is an okay start? its a bit jumpy and blocky i might go back over and edit it later

“Pathetic fallacy.” Natasha was not surprised by Tony’s appearance, she was waiting. She was, internally, surprised that he had managed to arrive without her noticing.

“What?” She turned to face him, brushing wet hair out of her face.

“Pathetic fallacy. That’s what they call it when the weather reflects a person’s emotions, unless I’m wrong. Which, I never am, so, pathetic fallacy.” He held out his arm, gesturing towards the bus shelter.

“Sure, whatever you say.” A pause, neither of the pair moving.

“What is it Natasha.” Tony had waited long enough, he was intrigued to what Natasha wanted, even though he would never show it.

“I need your help. Really techy stuff, with S.H.I.E.L.D. It all went wrong, please Tony, you’re the only one I can call.” She held out a USB stick. “Things got difficult, I had to dump all the files on to a private server, but it turns out the server wasn’t as private as I wanted it to be, I need you to take off S.H.E.I.L.D.s files.”

“Of course, I’ll need you to come with me to go over the details and to find a better server to keep the files on.” Natasha smiled softly.

“Of course, I’ll keep you company.” Tony smiled, properly, for the first time in months.

***

“You’re still in contact with Steve?”

“Kind of, he lets me know how the hunt for Barnes is going.”

“Ah, understandable.” Another pause, they were still getting used to each other’s company, conversation was never the easiest thing to pull together.

“Tony, there’s something I need to tell you.”

“Uh oh, that never ends well.” Tony laughed lightly until he saw Natasha’s face. “This is serious isn’t it?” Natasha’s grimace was enough to let Tony know.

“Mission report, December 16th, 1991.”

“Oh God, Tasha no.”

“Staged to look like an accident, secure the remainder of the serum, no witnesses, assailant, the Winter Soldier. Tony, God-” Natasha pushed the hologram away from her, and pulled Tony close to her, despite all her training to keep people out of arms reach.

“You know, if it was just dad, I think I might have thanked him. But my mother too? Tasha, she didn’t deserve anything.” Tony sobbed into Natasha’s shoulder.

“I know, I know.” The pair stood still for a long time, or maybe it wasn’t, but time seemed to stop, stretching around them. Slowly, Tony pulled away from Natasha, turning to face the glowing holograms.

“Okay Tash, let’s sort these files out. JARVIS, you ready?” His voice was scratched from crying for so long. He offered Natasha a watery smile. “Let’s hide your past huh Tash?”

***

Steve was the one to reach out to Tony, knowing that the genius was the one he needed to find his love, as expected, Tony was cold, unwilling to help at first. Begrudgingly, Steve could admit that was his fault. Steve had been hasty to judge Tony, firing scathing sentences at Tony, aiming to be as cruel as possible, for that was what Tony seemed to do to him.

And then Tony proved Steve entirely wrong, Tony followed almost all of Steve’s orders, called Steve boss. And flew a nuke into outer space. Oh, and he died. Turns out Tony really was one for sacrifice play.

However, none of this deterred Steve from being cold, he still was unsure about Tony, he looked too much like Howard for his own good, he was too fast, his comebacks too clever. He just seemed wrong to Steve.

But, Steve needed help, and Tony was the man who would give it to him. He _would_.

“Rogers! How can I help!” Steve scowled behind the phone, it was too early for someone to be so chipper.

“I need your help.”

“Straight to the chase, I like a man like that.” Something clattered in the background, Tony made a cross noise. “Dum-E you put that back, right now! Sorry Cap, how can I help you?”

“I need you to help me find Bucky.” Tony went silent. Dead silent, Steve thought the line had been cut off until Tony huffed out a heavy breath.

“Sgt James Buchanan Barnes, 107th division, the Winter Soldier, the fist of HYDRA.” Tony paused. “Known to you as Bucky, known to me as the killer of my parents.” Steve froze, there was no way Tony would help him now. “But he’s a weapon, I can’t blame him for what he did under HYDRA’s control, he was beaten and brainwashed into submission. I can’t hate Bucky for what he did, because it wasn’t him. We can’t have him fall back into HYDRA’s hands. I’ll help you find him.”

“Really?” Steve was shocked.

“Of course. Imagine the damage HYDRA could do with him now if they get hold of him again, from what I’ve seen going through HYDRA’s files they’ve got some updated technology. If they give him the tech they’re working on, we’re looking at massive civilian danger, on a possibly worldwide scale.” Something clicked in the background, followed by lots of whirring noises.

“Uh, yeah totally.” The thought of civilians in danger was not something Steve had considered, he’d only really cared about himself and getting back his lover.

“I’m just getting a flight path cleared, meet me at the launch mat in one hour. Alright J, Suit up.” The link beeped and disconnected.

 


	2. Chapter 2

The human eye, it is said, is attracted to movement and colour. So a flashy gold and red flying suit of armour is very attractive. Draws the attention of those around it. Steve, despite constantly drawing attention to himself when carrying out missions with the Avengers, had never understood why Tony had made the suit so obnoxious. He had guessed it was to do with Tony needed attention on him, why, that was all Tony was about, being the centre of attention. Steve was not in a position to claim that he knew know why Tony wore the flashy colours, after so many times of being taken down in the fight due to the obnoxious colours, but someone looking in from the outside would have noticed that every time Tony got taken out, he had saved one of his teammates. Tony would brush it off as him being the most manoeuvrable Avenger, the suit being able to get to the situation faster than anyone else. But really? Tony was entirely unable to see himself in any way possible as valuable as the rest of the team. He was expendable, no one would really miss him if he was gone, he had put everything in place that if something had happened to him, the team would be financed for as long as they would all live, the Tower would be passed onto them.

Another thing with the attention always being on Tony, it was never on any of the other Avengers, whether this is in a fight, the Iron Man suits PA system constantly kept the enemy distracted long enough for the rest of the team to find the weaknesses and take it down. And in the press, for some reason, the press were always fascinated by whatever Tony was doing, whether it was going to buy donuts with James Rhodes, shoe shopping with Pepper, taking Harley out to a science fair, dropping Peter off at school or wherever he needed to be. Tony was always in the public eye, taking the majority of the hits from the paparazzi so that no one would notice the type of people Steve hooked up with, no one would notice the bar fights Natasha got into, no one would notice the kind of shops Clint was shopping at (it was Clint, no one wanted to know any ways).

Steve would never really know, but maybe a flashy suit of armour was the best idea after all.

Steve found Tony in the Quinjet, programming in the location that Bucky had been seen, the suit was to the side on standby, the eyes of the suit glowing lightly, matching the glow from Tony's chest.

"Tony, are you sure you're here to help?" Steve was worried, Bucky had killed Tony's parents, no matter how you looked at it, what if Tony was here to kill Bucky as revenge for what he had done. "What with your parents, and Bucky?"

“I know, it was the Winter Soldier, not Bucky, HYDRA put him through some terrible things to make him their bitch. The Bucky from the stories wouldn’t have done something like that. It’s okay Steve, I don’t hold it against him.” Tony huffed heavily, as sound close to a laugh. “You know, if it had just been dad? I might have even thanked them. But no Steve, I promise I'm here to help, like I said, the Winter Soldier is a weapon, and with the improving technology that it looks like HYRDA is getting their hands on, if they give that to the Soldier, we're in trouble. The risk to civilians and the likes is huge."

"Yeah, yeah of course." Steve never thought of the consequences, he just wanted Bucky back, come hell or high water.

The flight was short, despite crossing an entire ocean to get to Romania. Tony talked for half of it, hardly any of what he said, Steve listened to, but Tony just wanted the attention, it's not like what he was saying was important or anything, just some upgrades to the Quinjet, enabling the jet to reach speeds close to Mach 3. Or something like that, Steve still wasn't listening.

"Hey, Rogers, see the bag ono the table?" Steve looked over at the black knapsack. "In there you've got a super strong recalling electromagnet for your shield, there's one for either arm, it's specifically programmed to get your shield, put them on and test them out. There’s extra Kevlar for inside your suit, well, not Kevlar, more like Tony Stark’s new and improved bulletproof material, that should stop any kind of bullet below some kind of insane rocket launcher. Then we’ve got some extra strength handcuffs, well, restraint devices, handcuffs doesn’t cut it. They’re programmed that you just throw them and they’ll lock onto his arms, and the same for his ankles. I’m hoping we don’t have to use them, as they look pretty violent when they’re in action. But they should be strong enough to hold him. You've got a call button on the wristband on your suit, it's monitoring your vitals, so if anything goes wrong, or it gets destroyed, it should activate, and I'll come and pick you both up. If you double tap it, it will call one of my suits to surround and immobilise Barnes. But hopefully you'll be quick enough that we won't need to."

"Roger that, I'll keep you updated on what's happening as much as possible." Tony nodded. "Anything else I should be aware of?"

"Try and keep a low profile, please don’t destroy too much public property, I have to pay for it to be repaired, Shield can't afford it." Tony huffed lightly. "Don't get killed, don't get Barnes killed, do not get any civilians killed. We can't deal with the repercussions. Come back in one piece. I'm going to hover the 'Jet over a park, will you be okay to jump out?"

"Yeah. See you on the other side Stark."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> a chapter?? what is this?? im sorry for taking soo long, I've been so busy with work and everything I haven't gotten round to writing.
> 
> Let me know what you think, or if I've made any Grave Errors, love ya xx

**Author's Note:**

> let me know if you liked it :) or any spelling errors etc etc


End file.
